Before we get to today’s movies let’s talk about the elephant in the superhero living room. Or, as some fanboys and ardent moviegoers are thinking: Chris Nolan’s next move. Are you a Batman fan? In any of his crimefighting iterations? Down the road, we’ll ultimately get a look at Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and we will see that about which everyone’s abuzz. But boy, they sure know how to leak stuff. The latest of course is this picture of Tom Hardy (from Inception), which has managed to get every fan on planet earth uber-stoked. Now, I’ve seen the Batmanfilms and I understand that secrecy is in order. We’re dealing with a Caped Crusader, after all. But what do you make of this photo that was “leaked” and is now prompting massive speculation because Hardy plays Bane – The Dark Knght’s latest (very evil) nemesis. He looks pretty badass. Right? Quite the opponent. Only here’s what I’m wondering about – how smart are these people who make the Batman movies? How inspired are they because really and truly, we’ve all been pretty excited about any number of movies but they never leaked images like this franchise, did they? It was never so secretive and covert, was it? That’s actually part of the appeal. We never said, wow –Date Nightis rumored to be coming out and here is a blurry sneak peek shot at Tina Fey’s costume…or Hangover Part Two is enroute – behold then this illegally-gotten bootleg pic of Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms arguing in a crucial scene! The people behind The Dark Knight know exactly how to sell their picture – cloaked in secrecy, and well in advance. And it gets everyone revved up.

So now to this weekend’s movies.

Who’s going to try and take a leedle bite out of those Hangover Part Two millions? Well James McAvoy, January Jones, and Michael Fassbender with their X-Men: First Class. It looks great. And the buzz is awesome. Do we expect it to trump the Wolfpack? Not at all. But it’ll certainly be popular. That’s really all that’s opening in wide release (would you want to go up against Pirates, Bridesmaids and Drunk & Tattoo’ed Troublemakers who still don’t get it?) I wouldn’t.

Although if you were to crave artier fare, you can also go see Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor and one fiendishly cute Jack Russell Terrier starring in Beginners, which is all about a guy who discovers that his aging father is both a) quite sick and b) quite gay. Looks smart and if I had to guess I’m betting that Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp from The Sound of Music) gets some serious attention for this role come awards season. As in, major recognition. So if you get a chance, let us know what you think of X-Men: First Class and/or Beginners. And as always, have a great weekend; let us know what you saw and what you thought.